Residents honor past and present military

Oceanside, Coronado continue tradition

Virginia St. John of Lakeside shows her support for the military at Coronado’s 62nd annual Independence Day Parade on Saturday. The parade’s theme was “A Salute to America’s Heroes.”
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

Virginia St. John of Lakeside shows her support for the military at Coronado’s 62nd annual Independence Day Parade on Saturday. The parade’s theme was “A Salute to America’s Heroes.”
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

“It’s one of those groups that’s getting smaller every year. It gets more important every year to see them,” said Baldwin, who expected to take 300 photos of the parade.

Lisa Jessee, 35, and her sons, Noah, 4, and Gabe, 2, sat on a sidewalk eagerly awaiting their personal hero — her husband, their father — marching with members of the Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron. “It’s great. We’re proud,” she said.

In Oceanside, this Fourth of July pride almost didn’t happen.

Economic hard times were felt in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Unlike in years past, Saturday’s parade did not culminate in the O’fest street fair, and near the parade’s staging area a sandwich board proclaimed: No Fourth of July fireworks this year.

“It was not going to be held this year because of finances,” said parade committee chair Jan Gardner. “But we had a group of business owners and citizens who said, ‘We need to have our parade.’ So a few of us volunteered to keep it going.”

In February, the committee began raising the $15,000 needed to defray the cost of the Police Department’s services as well as those of the city’s public works and special events departments. Seventy volunteers cheerfully worked the event.

“The community really came together,” Gardner said. “This truly is a community parade.”